Monday, October 13, 2008

The Eight-Legged Answer to a Prayer

A new family moved into our ward a few weeks ago. They have a young son, a member of the primary, that has some behavior and developmental issues. He has a very hard time transitioning from one activity to another, and the general noise and chaos of primary can be upsetting. This week was the first one that his parents dared leave him in sharing time. I was thrilled to see him there. He has been the object of much prayer and concern over the last few weeks and I was looking forward to an opportunity to work with him.

This just wasn't the best week for it...

Sharing time was my responsiblity this week, and I had too much going on. It was noisy and fun, but not great for my new friend. When he was asked to stop one activity and prepare for another he ran out of the room. Of those adults in the room at the time I in the best situation to follow him, so I did. He yelled at me to leave him alone. I tried talking to him about anything and everything I could come up with, but the relationship of trust I was attempting to build was crumbling at our feet. After several minutes of him running up and down the halls and me feeling more and more helpless, he ran to a door leading outside. I couldn't let him leave the building. If that happened I wouldn't be able to get help without leaving him unattended. I started to pray. What would keep him here? What lessons did God want me to teach today?

And then I saw it. There, on the wall, at about my waist, was a lost spider. Ah-hah! What nine year old boy can resist an arachnid! He was at my side in an instance and we spent the next five minutes carefully collecting our specimen and returning him to the great outdoors. I was no longer afraid of being outside with him. He wasn't going to run off. I took this opportunity to bond with him a bit and to share a very simple testimony. After a few minutes his father came looking for us. I really needed to be back in primary, so I let Dad take over. When my young friend returned to primary his attitude had not changed, but mine had. He is a member of our primary, and Heavenly Father has shown me time and time again that the members of our primary are of the utmost importance to Him. Just a reminder.